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Cooperative learning was proposed in response to traditional curriculum-driven education. In cooperative learning environments, students interact in purposely structured heterogeneous group to support the learning of one self and others in the same group.

In online education, cooperative learning focuses on opportunities to encourage both individual flexibility and affinity to a learning community (Paulsen 2003). Cooperative learning seeks to foster some benefits from the freedom of individual learning and other benefits from collaborative learning. Cooperative learning thrives in virtual learning environments that emphasize individual freedom within online learning communities.

Contents 1 Cooperative Learning and Technology 2 Three Theoretical Perspectives 3 Four Types of Cooperative Learning 4 Grouping 5 Competing Paradigms 6 See also 7 External links 8 References

Cooperative learning explicitly builds cooperation skills by assigning roles to team members and establishing norms for conflict resolution via arbitration. Cooperative learning should also provide the means for group reflection and individual self-assessment.

"Cooperative learning (CL) is an instructional paradigm in which teams of students work on structured tasks (e.g., homework assignments, laboratory experiments, or design projects) under conditions that meet five criteria: positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, appropriate use of collaborative skills, and regular self-assessment of team functioning. Many studies have shown that when correctly implemented, cooperative learning improves information acquisition and retention, higher-level thinking skills, interpersonal and communication skills, and self-confidence (Johnson, Johnson, and Smith, 1998)."

--Deborah B. Kaufman, Richard M. Felder, Department of Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University

--Hugh Fuller, College of Engineering, North Carolina State University

A natural outgrowth of cooperative learning is its pairing with technology that affords learners the chance to bridge distance and time.

Recently, with the advent of a Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) technology and the Internet, researchers on computer-mediated collaborative learning have suggested that the fusion of collaborative learning and CMC technologies is mutually beneficial, since CMC technologies remove many barriers to collaborative learning.

David W. Johnson and Roger T. Johnson's article 'Cooperation and Technology' go into detail about cooperative learning (its relationship with collaborative learning) and technology's potential to play a role in facilitating learning that takes place in group environments. What follows is a summary of that article.

• Behavioral
  • Groups stimulate and punish
  • Groups offer more pros than they do cons.
• Cognitive / Constructivist
  • Knowledge and Learning are social in nature.
  • Learning comes from figuring out unexpected occurrences together.
• Social Interdependence
  • Cooperative
    • Group as a 'dynamic whole'
    • Positive Tension
    • High levels of interaction
  • Competitive
    • Negative Tension

• Formal
  • Teacher-planned
    • Learners given explicit roles and goals.
    • Learners monitored.
    • Learners prompted to reflect on process, personal and group contributions.
  • Groups may exist for one class period or several weeks.
• Informal
  • Temporary groups with short-term goals.
  • structure...
• Base Groups
  • Long-term (months to a year)
  • General support for overall academic success
• Academic Controversy
  • Elicit controversy between students.
  • State case for each side
  • Withstand questioning from opposing viewpoint.
  • Come to consensus.

Heterogeneous vs. Homogeneous Grouping

• Heterogeneous Groups
  • High Achievers never lose
  • Usually better
  • Male/Female pairs most off task
• Homogeneous Groups
  • Low Achievers fastest to quit
  • More interaction in all female groups than all male

Benefits of Cooperative Grouping

• Increased Self Efficacy
• Increased Retention
• Higher Motivation
• Preference for Future Coop-Learning Episodes

Building Better Groups

• Outcome Interdependence
  • Goal attainment depends on group
• Means Interdependence
  • Members carry out vital, distinct yet overlapping roles
• Individual Accountability
  • Feedback from members
  • When needed assistance
  • Reassign tasks to promote balance
• Task Complexity
  • Task is too complex for any single member to complete it.

Cooperative vs. Collaborative learning

• Normally used interchangeably.
• Collaborative learning can imply groups must come to consensus on a shared outcome.
• Cooperative learning can imply more task or role structure than collaborative learning.

Cooperative vs. Competitive Learning

• In Cooperative Learning, learners must work together in order to succeed and personal success only springs from group success.
• In Competitive Learning, in order to succeed, other learners must fail.

• Educational psychology
• Educational technology
• Learning by teaching

• The Online Collaborative Learning in Higher Education web site contains links to articles, books, conferences, and other resources related to collaborative and cooperative learning.

Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1996). Cooperation and the use of technology. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of research for educational communications and technology (pp. 1017-1044). New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan.

McInnerney J., & Roberts, T. S. (2005). Collaborative and Cooperative Learning. In The Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Volume 1: Online Learning and Technologies, Information Science Publishing, Hershey, Pennsylvania, 269-276, ISBN 1-59140-555-6.

Paulsen, M.F. (2003). Cooperative Freedom: An Online Education Theory. In Online Education and Learning Management Systems.